Source, contribution and microbial N-cycle of N-compounds in China fresh snow.

ABSTRACT

The importance and contribution of nitrogen compounds and the related microbial nitrogen cycling processes in fresh snow are not well understood under the current research background. We collected fresh snow samples from 21 cities that 80% are from China during 2016 and 2017. Principal component analysis showed that SO42- were in the first principal component, and N-compounds were the second. Furthermore, the main pollutant ions SO42- and NO3- were from anthropogenic sources, and SO42- contributed (61%) more to the pollution load than NO3- (29%), which were confirmed through a series of precipitation mechanism analysis. We selected five N-cycle processes (consist of oxidation and reduction processes) for molecular biology experiments, including Ammonia-oxidation process, Nitrite-oxidation process, Denitrification process, Anaerobic-ammoxidation process (Anammox) and Dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium process (DNRA). Except ammonia-oxidizing archaeal (AOA) and bacterial (AOB) amoA genes (above 107 copies g-1), molecular assays of key functional genes in various nitrogen conversion processes showed a belowed detection limit number, and AOB abundance was always higher than AOA. The determination of the microbial transformation rate using the 15N-isotope tracer technique showed that the potential rate of five N-conversion processes was very low, which is basically consistent with the results from molecular biology studies. Taken together, our results illustrated that microbial nitrogen cycle processes are not the primary biological processes causing the pollution in China fresh snow.